- Recognize that thinking about writing is often more fun and always easier than actually writing. But neither thinking about writing, reading articles about writing, watching videos, “lining up a few beta readers,” planning to write, researching, outlining, worldbuilding, nor any number of other writing-adjacent activities is actually writing. At some point, you have to get off your ass and … well, sit your ass back down in a chair and start actually putting words on a page. Until you’re putting words on a page, you’re not writing. If you want to fantasize about being a writer, more power to you. If you want to be a writer, it’s a ton of work and almost all of that work involves putting words on a page.
- Related to the item above, put words on a page regularly. Set a goal for yourself (say, 250 words a day or 500 words a day or 1000 words a day) and don’t stop putting words on a page until you’ve reached that goal. Most of those words are going to be no good, though, which brings us to . . .
- You suck. No, I mean it. You suck really, really bad. What you write is going to be absolute utter garbage. It’s going to stink up the place. But that’s okay. You’re a beginner. You’re supposed to suck. That’s what beginners do. You don’t apply to med school and start performing neurosurgery the next day. You don’t pick up a guitar for the first time on Tuesday and start your worldwide tour on Wednesday. And you don’t sit down to write your first story and turn out a masterpiece. The biggest mistake novice writers make is having high expectations; cut yourself some slack and allow yourself to suck.
- Related to the item above, read this about shitty first drafts. And while you read it, remember: you suck, so you’re going to have to learn to work with shitty first drafts for a long while.
- Ideas are worthless. The second biggest mistake novice writers make is thinking the idea is important. It’s not. Ideas are cheap; a dime a dozen. Don’t hold onto an idea like it’s the One Ring and you’re Gollum (Lord of the Rings reference). The idea is not what matters; the craft of writing is what matters. A seemingly compelling idea can be butchered by a writer that sucks (ahem) and the most banal, apparently boring idea can become a masterpiece in the hands of a great writer. A good idea will never redeem crappy writing. And the only way to improve at the craft of writing is to actually write—see the first point above.
- So if ideas are worthless, what does matter? Story. A story is characters with goals facing obstacles. The characters are trying to achieve their goals, but encountering obstacles to being able to do that, which is what generates conflict in a story. The anticipation of the resolution of that conflict (or lack thereof) is what keeps the reader engaged. Most stories are structured around a large, long-term goal (e.g., “defeat Voldemort” in the Harry Potter series) at either the book or series level (or both), but the characters have many, many smaller short-term goals and obstacles on their path to achieving that ultimate goal. Your task: identify your characters, their long-term and short-term goals, and the obstacles that are in their path to achieving them. If you can do that, the sequence of events—the plot—almost takes care of itself.
- Did I mention you have to first suck at writing before you can become good at writing?
Note: this is our attempt at compiling useful tips to help elevate our community’s writing skills.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/p0zkpz/comment/h8a23t0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button